A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Johannesburg, 1996 / South African and American public rock art sites are in a predicament. In both countries, there is a lack of an adequate, theoretically informed but practically implementable, conceptual approach to presenting these sites. This lack leads to the reproduction of stereotypes of rock art and the indigenous people who made it. This thesis suggests a way of rectifying the present situation. It is argued that any suggested reconstruction of public rock art sites must recognise that they are implicated in identity-formation. Following this premise, a strategy, entitled metaphoric pilgrimage, is suggested, developed and applied to four rock art sites - two in South Africa and two in America.